Tactical in-building location solutions are becoming increasingly popular in first responder security situations. Resource management is the primary objective of the tactical approach, with incident command centers located at remote locations away from the environmental hazards. In the event of a man-down situation, the tactical system can identify and locate the individual under duress, select a resource unit closest to the incident, direct a rescue intervention team to the man-down using that resource unit, and then direct the team and rescued individual out to the safest location. The tactical approach requires a significant amount of resources including a very reliable radio frequency (RF) location system.
There exist some in-building rescue systems that can be carried by rescue personnel and deployed with little interaction from remote resources. Personal area network (PAN) devices generally refer to a computer network used close to one person. However, many of the PAN systems must be carried by hand and are bulky, cumbersome and hard to manage during rescue operations. The visual displays of such systems, if any, are typically mounted in the search unit carried by the rescue personnel. During intense smoke or moisture the display may become non-functional.
Newer face masks are being developed to facilitate rescue personnel. Self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) devices may include a display mounted in the nose section of the facemask to provide the status of airtime, temperature and pressure. However, SCBA displays require the rescue personnel to visually focus on the display which can distract the user from the current task.
It would be highly beneficial to have a portable location determination device that provides improved display capability that is unobtrusive to the user's line of vision and minimizes the need to use hands for tracking and search functions.